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Baroque Bistro, The Rocks

Baroque Bistro is located in a chic heritage building in The Rocks. You can choose to sit outside for an alfresco dining experience but on this cold winter’s night, we were gladly seated inside where we could enjoy the view of the Harbour Bridge through the large windows. This wasn’t my first time at Baroque and although I am aware of the mixed reviews about both the food and service, I’ve always had a pleasant experience here. My sister thoroughly enjoyed her dinner here last time and was excited to be back to celebrate my belated birthday.

We shared an entree of Steamed Boston Bay Mussels, white wine, garlic and cream served with fries. Although on the small side, the mussels were freshly sweet and went wonderfully well with the white wine and cream sauce. The dish came with a huge bowl of fries which was a great vehicle for mopping up the remaining sauce. I also liked the garlic croutons which provided an additional dimension in both texture and flavour.

My sister is particularly fond of red meat and ordered the Roasted lamb rump with confit lamb rib, broccoli puree and black barley. Of course I had to have a taste (and more). The lamb rump was served rare, soft and retaining the texture of the meat, but the fat could’ve been rendered down more. The lamb rib was chargrilled until the exterior was crisp, offering a smokey flavour. A textural component was added by the pleasantly chewy black barley but both my sister and I thought the broccoli was unnecessary.

The Sauteed snapper with lobster, saffron and mussel bouillon served with garlic croutons and rouille was a lighter main. Differing from the menu, the lobster in my dish was replaced by clams. To be honest, I did not even notice until I started writing this post so I didn’t mind although lobster would’ve been even better! The snapper was a bit overcooked resulting in a firmer texture but I really enjoyed the seafood flavours in the broth. Also not mentioned on the menu were these extremely thin and delicate crisps that were so addictive when dipped in the seafood garlic sauce provided.

I’m sure their desserts are delectable as the kitchen also provides pastries and cakes to their patisserie down the road, but my sister and I had plans for even better desserts. But we couldn’t leave Baroque Bistro without some of their famous macarons. Our favourites are the rose and jasmine flavours, but jasmine wasn’t available that night so we ended up with rose, peanut butter and a coconut, lime and mango.